Profit warnings are never happy occasions, but few fund managers and analysts took the news of Coca-Cola Amatil's shock 15 per cent downgrade like Citi analyst Gino Rossi, whose dummy spit is fast spreading across town.

Normally polite and diplomatic, analyst calls are not normally a place where passions are on displays.

Mr Rossi is well-known for his bullish views on the stock and only recently published a four part "Myth Busters" series to point out areas where he thought the market was undervaluing the soft drinks maker.

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Mid-way through a long analyst call, Rossi was handed the floor for a second time after claiming to be cut off during his first questions.

"I always try and treat management with respect on these calls, so can you not talk over me and cut me off, I'd like to ask my question," Mr Rossi said.

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His anger was understandably justified, given the Coca-Cola reported its full-year earnings only two months ago and there was no downgrade then.

Clearly frustrated at Coca-Cola's inability to explain a sharp slump in earnings, Rossi took the company to task for not answering his initial question and playing into the hands of analysts who were bearish on the stock.

"I'm very disappointed with what I'm hearing today because it's all just pandering to the bears. It's all just in response to broker notes," he said.

"Now if the brokers are running this company, the shareholders are screwed."

CCL analyst call was pretty exciting today. Good to finally see some analysts out there giving it to companies #ausbiz Not just sucking up!

After taking the top job at Coca-Cola just over six weeks ago, Alison Watkins moved quickly to calm nerves.

"I don't think we intentionally cut you off at this end. I think it's more the technology. We did get your first question about the mix shift," Ms Watkins said.

Stand by your man

Citi stood behind its analyst, stating he was asking the hard questions after a significant change in information from Coca-Cola.

“Given the significant change in information being provided to the market Gino wanted to ensure that he was getting answers to his very detailed concerns.

"His enthusiasm for getting to the facts may have been more passionate than normal, but scrutinising company results in order to provide robust independent research is what our clients expect of us,” a Citi spokesperson said.

Rossi had a $14.60 price target on the stock and had been one of its strongest advocates in recent months. Coca-Cola Amatil shares were down 15 per cent to $9.77 by midday on Friday, their biggest fall in 23 years.

The analyst has been at pains to point out Coca-Cola Amatil is the cheapest Coca-Cola bottler globally on a number of valuation metrics, including a dividend yield of 5.1 per cent.

It remains to be seen whether Mr Rossi is right and if Friday's downgrade's downgrade is just a blip in a longer-term recovery. But fund managers said Friday's call would be remembered as a candidate for "analyst dummy spit of the year".